Harry Potter and the Dragon of Virtue
by SyraBillsLican
Summary: Harry is beginning his 6th year at Hogwarts, but before he can even go there, Dumbledore asks him to do something insane! bIt has something to do with a dragon! (Hint hint, nudge nudge, wink wink)
1. Default Chapter

Harry Potter and the Dragon of Virtue

By Michael Sebring

As Harry Potter awoke from a short afternoon nap on a couch in the Dursley's residence of 4 Privet Drive, he received a small chill and a tingling on his spine. Such had become common following the occurrences of the previous spring. It is not coincidental that Harry should be thinking of that night, for he has been dwelling on it nonstop. Sirius, the only father figure Harry had been able to come to know and love was stolen from him. Like the snuffing of a candle by the wind, it was both instantaneous and dynamic.

Comforting, consoling, reassuring. Harry had come to expect these reactions as well as his grief, anger and despair. It was just that he didn't think he could take being on the receiving end of the ladder. He was receiving on average five letters a day from members of the Order of the Phoenix, each one not containing a hint of what he really wanted to hear, to read and to feel.

His first letter arrived a mere ten minutes after walking in the average, ordinary front door of the Dursley's house. Fortunately, the owl that did the delivering had picked, instead of gliding through the kitchen window, to cleverly slip it into the back pocket of Harry's jeans while he was traveling from the car to the front porch of the Dursley's. When Harry sat upon his bed, he felt the stiffness of parchment in his rear.

"Already?" Harry asked Hedwig. The last thing Harry felt like doing at that moment was to read how great Sirius was and how he would be happy to see James and Lily again. What about Harry? Wouldn't Sirius be happier to see Harry than be dead? Harry knew these questions weren't fair and was genuinely glad that Sirius and James would be reunited. It was just that he wanted to know the answer to the question asked in every corny story he had ever read: 'why?' Why him? Why the only person he had developed a strong father son relationship with? These questions were unanswerable, so he did what everybody does: stuff them into a corner to deal with later. He threw the letter into the top drawer of his desk and went back downstairs. Harry knew the only lettering he would do would be to mention that the Dursley's were not treating him horribly. Unless they were, of course.

Getting up from the couch, Harry decided to take a short walk over to Mrs. Figg's house and maybe have a cup of tea or eat some crumpets. The sun was burning down with great vigor, as it usually does during the last fortnight of July and there was a multitude of children playing in the sprinklers.

Halfway through the street however, an incident occurred that was unforeseeable to Harry. The Knightbus came rolling through the street stopping right in front of Harry. Stan Shunpike leaped out of the bus along with Hermione, Ron, Fred, George, Ginny and Lupin.

"What is going on?" asked Harry, shocked.

"Hey, Harry. How's it goin'?" asked Fred.

"Yeah, mate. What's up?" followed George.

"Are you kidding me? You just nearly ran me over by the bus and then again when you all jumped out straight at me. Isn't there something important to tell me _or_ are you going to take me away again? Perhaps?" added Harry at the end, hopefully.

"Whoa, calm down. Nothing is wrong. Didn't you get our letters? They told you what would be happening," said Lupin with a worried, inquisitive look. Harry shook his head. He had hoped he would have been able to come up with a reason later for not reading their letters, but their appearance had been so instantaneous that he would just have to tell them the truth. He opened his mouth to begin but Lupin interjected.

"Its okay, Harry. I understand. We've got big news to tell you, so go pack up and shake a leg, will you?" said Lupin, with a sort of shamed tone. He reached into his pocket and pulled out only a galleon and two sickles. Apparently, making the bus wait would not be cheap.

Ron, Hermione and Ginny began to follow Harry back to the Dursley's but Harry stopped them. "Uh, well, you know Dursleys."

"Say no more," said Ron.

Harry went to his room and retrieved his already packed trunk, Hedwig's cage and the books on his dresser. He had been waiting for this day to come since getting off of the Hogwarts Express in June. He scribbled a quick note to the Dursleys.

Gone out. Won't be back till next summer.

-Harry

_That should be enough for that lot_, thought Harry.

He met everyone back out in the street and watched Mark Evans walk right in front of the triple-decker purple bus without looking at it at all. Instead, he stared at the crowd around Harry nosily and went back to the sprinklers.

"Right. Where are we going?" asked Harry.

"Where else, but to –" began Ron, but was kicked in the shin by Fred.

"Dolt! Not here. Man, don't you get tired of always being the one to let your tongue slip or do you like being just stupid? I'm sorry, Harry, but we'll tell you everything on the bus. Lupin set up a Secrecy Charm to stop any eavesdroppers," said George. They boarded the bus and went up to the third level of the bus, all the way to the back, where a small ring of chairs was set up.

"Give it to me," said Harry.

"Well," began Ron, "you'll never guess at all of stuff we've been doing lately, namely nothing. They still won't let us do anything and by us, I don't mean Fred and George. After they left school and set up Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes, Dumbledore let them join the Order of the Phoenix and they've shut up tighter than a clam. I mean, you'd never have expected them to have been the ones to create Extendable Ears!"

"On sale this week only," Fred put in.

"Yeah, okay. Whatever. Anyway, Voldemort can't really do anything without half of his Death Eaters, can he? So –"

"Whoa! You're saying Voldemort now, Ron?"

"Of course! What? Do you think I'm not brave enough to say Voldemort?"

"Ha! You didn't eat for two days after the first time you said it," laughed George, who feigned bending over to throw up. Ron began to turn red. "_So_, there have been no huge attacks, yet. That is, of course, not counting the attacks on the Ministry of Magic by angry protesters on your behalf, Harry. Those attacks were pretty ruthless." Harry smiled.

"Ruthless," said Fred slowly. "You know what? That word doesn't make sense. Ruth_less_. Have you ever heard of someone actually having _ruth_? What does ruth mean? I mean, if you can't have ruth, why add the suffix –less to it? English is an odd language."

"You're quite wrong, Fred. In fact, Ruth was a woman from the Bible who had great compassion towards other individuals. So to be ruthless is to not have compassion," responded Hermione in her usual knowing tone.

"Way to just ruin my musing, Hermione. How about this one? Why when you want to add the suffix –tion to the word present, you instead have to add –tation? Why don't people present presentions? Because we surely don't presentate presentations."

"All right, back to bringing Harry up to speed, please," guided Lupin. Hermione gave Fred that one last threatening look that women seem to have perfected to keep men quite and then began her turn with the makeshift spotlight.

"The Order's ranks have swelled lately. Dumbledore picks people who he trusts and they all have joined. Mr. Weasley believes that we have more than twice the amount of Order members compared to the last time Voldemort came to power. That's really all they'll tell us. I'm just leaving out one small thing." Hermione looked very unsteady and looked around for help. They all looked a little shaky, but about what, Harry couldn't fathom.

Lupin explained. "Charlie Weasley has… trained a dragon. Believes he has, is more like it, but Dumbledore has already investigated and says that it is a huge breakthrough. I believe you know the dragon that Charlie trained: Norbert the Norwegian Ridgeback. Yes?" Harry couldn't believe what he heard. _Trained a dragon?_ That was supposed to be impossible. Yet Harry supposed that Hagrid must have some unknown effect upon the creatures he loved so much. Maybe Harry had been underestimating the prowess of Hagrid's abilities. Hagrid must have been the influential factor in Norbert's development. What else could do what thousands of years couldn't? Hagrid had supposedly trained Fluffy the three-headed dog, Aragog the Acromantula and he has even begun to civilize, if you can call it that, Grog, his Giant half-brother.

"I don't think I can believe you," said Harry incredulously.

"We don't even believe it Harry. Of course, none of us are going to go to Romania to check it out. Not in a million years," said Ron.

"Well anyways, The Order is still at Number Twelve Grimmauld Place and that's where you're all going," said Hermione, in a not so subtle attempt to change the topic.

"You're not coming?" asked Harry.

"Harry, if I don't spend some time with my parents, I'm not going to get any Christmas presents. Plus, I'll see you when term starts. Don't you ever get sick of me?"

"Now that you say it … Yeah, I guess I do," joked Harry.

"I second that," added Ron.

"Here, here," said both Fred and George simultaneously. The sound of laughter went unheard both by the members of the Knightbus and the pedestrians of the street as they hurtled past the Leaky Cauldron into the heart of London to Number Twelve Grimmauld Place.

* * *

As the others entered the headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix, Harry stopped and stared at the front of the house. Now that he thought about it, he didn't think he would be able to enter the house that had so recently been his Godfather's. This seemed to be too big a step for Harry to make so quickly after Sirius's death. Unfortunately for Harry, the decision was not up to him. Mad-eye Moody walked up behind him and whispered into his ear.

"I wouldn't dawdle out here, if I were you. In fact, I forbid you to leave the household beginning now. Voldemort has become obsessed with you lately," whispered Moody "and I wouldn't have been surprised if you had gotten attacked on your way here. Inside, inside. Let's go." Harry let himself be led inside the house, but he closed his eyes as he entered the abode.

An insane screaming came blaring to Harry's ears, the moment he entered the anteroom to the house. _Mrs. Black._ Harry had forgotten how horrible and annoying that blaring scream could be. As he opened his eyes, he looked for the old painting of Mrs. Black and the rag-like old curtain that usually surrounded it, but just found a large, light square where it should have been, as if someone had removed an object that hadn't been nudged one way or another in centuries.

Harry suddenly saw the large umbrella stand crash to the ground as Moody went racing by into a room that Harry had never been allowed in. That room was used only during the most confidential and important of Order occurrences. Harry had never seen anyone enter or exit that room, for he had always been forced to go to the room that he and Ron had shared for the duration of the night. Harry spared a bewildered look toward Ron and Ginny who were already halfway up the stairs before racing to the entrance of the door.

The room's walls were dark blue with a patterned Fleur de Lis design that seemed to sparkle as you looked at each symbol. The lighting was very odd in this room, for there were no lamps or candles present at all, yet there seemed to be a spotlight that pointed to one area. Inside, a collection of people were arranged in a semicircular pattern all facing toward a man who was sitting in a chair with shackles in the center of the light. Harry couldn't recognize anybody in the room because of the way the light was positioned. His head was tilted downward as if he had just been subjected to great strain. His breathing was disjointed and each gave the impression of coming at great cost. His clothes were disheveled and a shadow of stubbly black hair was present on his cheeks and chin. Harry spared a look towards two stout shapes as they sat in chairs near the back. _That must be Fred and George._ As Harry slowly entered the room, this man looked up and stared at him. A malevolent grin crept onto his face. The other occupants of the room turned to see what the man was looking at and saw Harry, Ron and Ginny in the entrance to the room.

A tall and spindly man rose swiftly to his feet and glided over to the three, all the while blocking their view of the man. Harry didn't mind not looking at the man, he got a distinct pain in his scar as the man's smile formed. As the man neared them, the light from the hall outlined the inimitable shape of Albus Dumbledore.

"Harry, Ron, Ginny, would you please step outside with me?" Harry knew not to argue.

As they entered the hall, Dumbledore placed his right hand on Harry's left shoulder and his left hand on Ginny's right shoulder and squeezed Ron in between. "I realize I am going to be very blunt right now, but I must return to my duties. I know that you have been informed that Charlie has trained Norbert the Dragon. He has been instructed to move Norbert up here from Romania and will bring along one other wizard with him. He will continue the training of Norbert in the UK. What I need you three to do is go to Charlie and help him with the training of this integral element in the fight against Voldemort. You three, and Hermione also if her parents allow her to go, are the strongest young wizards and witches in your years. Can I count on you?"

Silence. Ron and Ginny both looked at Dumbledore with awe. Harry on the other hand, took the news of travel much better. He was glad to get away from his Godfather's home. There would not have been any way for Harry to spend even a night inside this house. Everything reminded him of Sirius. Harry had enough trust in Dumbledore to know that Dumbledore would not put Harry into any trouble. It was always Harry who was the one who got into trouble because he failed to listen to Dumbledore. From what Harry could tell Dumbledore had never steered Harry wrongly.

"We'll do it. Anything and everything for the Order," voiced Harry. The looks that Ron and Ginny gave Harry were of incredulousness and fright. They apparently had no intentions to ever meet a dragon themselves. It seemed Harry had become somewhat bold and brazen and found that the only way not to dwell on the past was to charge forward. It made sense to Harry, if it might not to Ron or Ginny.

"Now listen to me. Do everything Charlie says. Do not, now this is very important, do not attempt to go near Norbert without supervision by Charlie. He is a professional Dragon Keeper and knows how to handle every situation that might come up," implored Dumbledore. Harry nodded, while Ron was looking around at all of the doors and windows in view, apparently contemplating which would be best for a quick escape, but Harry put his arm around Ron's shoulder, smiled and replied.

"We will not let you down Dumbledore."

"I would never expect you to, Harry." Ron let out a small whimper and Ginny a small squeak. Use of onomatopoeia, it seemed, was a fundamental component of the Weasley's grammatical vocabulary. Dumbledore pulled out of his amber cloak a rusty hammer. "Here is a portkey. It will send you to Charlie at exactly 6:30, so I suggest all go get your things ready. When you are done, everyone will be ready to say good-bye to you. You will know within the week whether Ms. Granger will be accompanying you." Dumbledore rushed back into the room with the grubby man and left Harry, Ron and Ginny alone in the hall with an unnatural stillness.

"I said that I wouldn't go in a million years, Harry, and I won't," said Ron. The sound of his voice broke the silence harshly.

"No," Harry quipped, "you said that you wouldn't go to _Romania_ in a million years. Norbert's somewhere in Britain now."

Ron put his face in his hands and let out a distressed wail.

After saying their farewells, which took much longer that Harry had expected and entailed many hugs and conciliatory smiles, the three newest Dragon Trainers all touched the handle of the diseased hammer.

* * *

_Whoosh_.

All three landed on their feet, though Ron had to wobble a little. No one saw him do this, however. Immediately after arriving in this deserted town that was attached to a field and what looked like a very old forest, a shadow descended upon Harry, Ron and Ginny. Not ten feet above their heads, flew a forty foot long Norwegian Ridgeback. Ginny and Ron both dove to the ground, but Harry stood standing and gaped at the effortless glide of the magnificent beast. As the dragon landed on the field in front of Harry, its tail hit a piece of wood sticking out of the ground. Harry, with an inquisitive look upon his face, slowly edged up to the overturned sign. Upon it read a simple phrase, only two words long, but it held great importance to Harry:

Godric's Hollow


	2. Early Explanations

Now that Harry is in an unknown village in which almost half the occupants is a dragon, he needs some answers, and quickly. He is also feeling, though a new sensation. b **A sense of adventure that may or may not involve a homicidal French killing spree! /b ** Most likely not, though. But it will be good even without the burning French towns. I am sorry to all pro-French readers, I didn't mean it. Very interesting and thrilling chapter, though!

Harry just stared at the moldy old piece of wood. i _Godric's Hollow! /i _ This was the place that Harry had lived in for the first year of his life. This was the place that Voldemort had killed his parents. He had many questions. i _Bloody hell, shouldn't I? /i _ Harry surprised himself with that thought. He usually refrained from swearing, even inside his head. i _How can I expect to keep the status quo, anyway? I have more mysteries in my life than anyone I have ever met and they keep surfacing one after the other._ _This is not much better than 12 Grimmauld Place. I have just as much to be sad about here as I do there. /i _As Harry continued to gaze at the sign with glazed-over eyes, Charlie walked up to him.

"Harry! How are you?" said Charlie as he punched Harry on the shoulder. "Where's Ron and Ginny? Didn't Dumbledore send them too?" Harry looked behind him only to see the desolate town next to the field. His puzzled expression changed to amusement as he saw a slight movement behind a decrepit old oak tree a few yards to the left of where the two siblings were formerly cowering on the ground. Ron and Ginny were both trying to prevent the dragon from seeing them at all, though they occasionally sneaked a peak to see if the lofty beast was still there.

"Ya know," called Harry, "a twenty-foot piece of dry wood wouldn't be my first choice for use as a hiding spot from a fire-breathing animal, but I applaud your bravery." Both the Weasleys leaped out from behind the tree and both tried to mask their embarrassment, but identical red spots formed on their cheeks.

"Hey, Charlie. Where have you been? I haven't seen you in forever," said Ron as he approached them. He was dusting himself off, but his eyes never left Norbert, who was left out in the field fifty feet behind Charlie.

"Romania," prompted Charlie.

"Really? That's an odd place to be. What were you doing there?" Clearly he wasn't paying attention to the actual conversation.

"Same old Ron," said Charlie with a sigh. He gave Ginny a hug, said 'Hi' and continued with Harry. "Isn't this place great? I just got here last night. Dumbledore told me that this used to be one of only two all wizard towns in all of Britain. Now, Hogsmeade is the only one. Don't ask me what happened because Dumbledore told me nothing" he said in response to Harry opening his mouth. Charlie gave the deserted town a wide scan over Harry's head. There were about fifty buildings all arranged on only five roads all coming together in the center of the town to create somewhat of a five-pointed star. All of the buildings had rot on their shingles and mold on their windows, that is, if they even had windows. Many buildings just had wide gaping holes where windows should have been, while others were missing three of their walls so that it just looked like a wall in the middle of a pile of rubble. Only one house seemed to be untouched by the taint on this town. It was a small one-story house on the outer edges of one of the roads. It was a horrible shade of puke-green, opposed to the pleasantly looking kind of puke-green, which made it unbearably noticeable. "It's a shame, really. Hogsmeade is one of the greatest places in Britain. I wonder how another one of its kind became susceptible to such destruction." Harry vowed, then and there, to learn all the secrets of Godric's Hollow during his time here. However long that would be. "That one house out there," said Charlie, pointing to the greenish house, "Luke and I fixed up."

"Gross. Luke i _would /i _ paint a house that color. Umm, who's Luke?" put in Ron.

"I'll get to that later. I promised Dumbledore I'd speak with Harry about something before I got into any particulars. Join me?" Harry nodded.

They began to walk back towards the village when an outlandish roar ripped through the air, which became several degrees warmer. Seconds later, Ron and Ginny were walking beside Charlie and Harry, considerably out of breath.

"Uhh, you don't mind if we come too? Do you, Harry?" asked Ron quivering slightly.

"Of course not," grinned Harry. "What is it, Charlie?"

"Are you sure you're fine having us here, Harry? We can let you alone. It's about … Sirius." Harry's grin faded. He thought for a few seconds.

"It's okay. What's happened?"

"Well … When Sirius, er … uhh…I mean, when Sirius…"

"Died," supplied Harry.

"Yes, that. He left a will. And in this will, he gave you pretty much everything he owned." Harry had completely forgotten about what would happen to Sirius' possessions. It didn't matter. He wouldn't accept them anyway. They would remind him too much of Sirius. Harry began to shake his head, but Charlie interrupted. "No, Harry. Before you tell me you don't want them, let me tell you that Sirius wanted you to have these things and so does Dumbledore. For starters, Sirius left you 12 Grimmauld Place."

"What? Harry, you own real estate! Well, actually, it's only real to about thirty people, but the point is you own a type of estate! Not too shabby," said Ron ecstatically.

_ i Great. I get to own the place that reminds me of nothing but Sirius. /i _

"You also get a flying motorcycle that had been in Sirius' possession."

_ i Flying motorcycle? Didn't I have a dream about a flying motorcycle before I even knew I was a wizard? What was Sirius doing with a flying motorcycle anyway? He had Buckbeak to use to travel. Oh my God! Who will take care of Buckbeak now that Sirius is gone? /i _

"And you get Buckbeak."

_ i Okay, I will_. /i 

"Now Harry. Sirius was the last of the Blacks and had complete control over the family's fortune."

"I don't want money."

"I know Harry, but if you don't take it, it goes to Lucius Malfoy. He is married to a cousin of Sirius'.

"Fine. How much?"

"Harry," chuckled Charlie, "they have over 60,000 galleons!"

"I don't want sixty-thou-, i _Sixty Thousand galleons_! /i What would I do with-- i _Sixty thousand Galleons /i ?_?" Ron, for the first time, stopped worrying about the dragon. He whistled, and then stared at Harry with his mouth open. Ginny looked at down at her own shabby clothes and stole a quick glance at Harry. Her head drooped and she only half-masked her sullenness. Harry didn't take any of this in, though. He was too enthralled in his own thoughts. Harry stayed quiet for minutes, contemplating and considering.

"I'm sorry to interrupt your thoughts, Harry, but Sirius also had specific instructions in his will to give you this," said Charlie handing him a medium sized square package, wrapped in brown paper.

"Oh, no. I definitely don't want this. Please take it back. Please?" Harry knew what was in the package. This was too much. Way too much. i _I have to get a hold on these stupid emotions. They do nothing but upset me. /i _ And again, Harry stuffed his feelings into a deep corner in his mind. This, he could tell, would become very common in Harry's future. Charlie took the package from Harry. Ron, who had seen through a small rip in the paper covering the object, spoke aloud.

"Is that a mirror?"

Ron, shut up," hissed Ginny, but that made it worse. The one thing worse than feeling emotions that he didn't like, was knowing that other people knew he was feeling them. That meant that they knew what's going through his mind and he hated that feeling. The problem was that there was no way to address the situation. To call attention to the fact that he didn't like Ginny talking about it, just elevated his feeling of embarrassment. So he changed the topic.

"So, who is Luke?"

"You don't need to worry about Luke. He was here a couple hours ago with Dumbledore and helped me set up here," explained Charlie. "If you guys want to see where you'll be staying for the next I don't know how long, it's this way."

Suddenly, a ball of flame shot past right above their heads, traveling toward the old forest. Ron and Ginny both again dove for the ground. Charlie whipped his head around to stare at Norbert.

"Norbert knows not to use Orb Flares, unless specifically directed to do so. I wonder what came over him. He must have seen a large bird flying over there. Some impulses are too strong to overcome, I guess." But that answer still didn't seem to ring true to Charlie. Charlie then started to walk again and he also began to rattle off some of his knowledge about dragons. "Norwegian Ridgeback Orb Flares can travel the farthest of any specie of dragon before burning out, you know."

Harry gave the old forest one last glance before turning to follow Charlie. Charlie continued to recite little-known facts as he led them to the edge of town and to the one house that still stood.

As they approached the derelict little village, the front of the house that Charlie and this Luke had renovated became in view of Harry's eyes. The color this close was just as bad as from afar, possibly worse. The area in front of the house looked as if the former residents of the house had a garden, but now all it contained were vines and weeds, and a little dirt, of course. When they stepped to the front door, Charlie reached for the handle, but the door opened first.

"Hey, Charlie. I was just going to see if you were done." Harry's eyes bulged. "Oh! Hi Harry." Inside the house was Dumbledore. Actually, now that Harry looked closer, it was a much less wise looking Dumbledore. Possibly, Dumbledore on a heavy dose of cold medication.

"Aberforth's the name, and Aberforth's the game. I haven't yet invented the rules for that game, but you can be sure they will be extremely entertaining." Harry's puzzled look must have been very apparent, for Aberforth moved his extended hand from Harry to Ron, whose expression of disgust was quite worse than Harry's. Finally, Aberforth went to shake the hand of Ginny, who took it, smiled and said her greetings.

"I'm doing just fine. Thank you, Ginny, is it?" She nodded. Aberforth began to turn back to Ron, but saw his face and immediately turned to Harry. "Ah, Mr. Planter. I've heard much about you from my brother, Albus. He's the head of a very prestigious institution near where you go to school, you know."

"It's Potter, sir. Harry Potter," replied Harry as he replaced the look of puzzlement on his face with one of sheer and utter befuddlement.

"Oh, there's no need for sir, Harry. The Overlord will be just fine for me, thank you. Charlie, what are the ingredients for the Flame Resistance Potion again? I just can't seem to remember them."

"You wrote them on the back of your hand. You've asked me the same question at least three times, Aberforth," sighed Charlie.

"Did I? Oh, well. I'll be in the fifth basement if you need me. Salutations."

"Goodbye, Aberforth," said Charlie as he winked toward Ginny. He continued when he could here the pounding of his feet on the stairs no longer. "Aberforth has never been the brighter of the two Dumbledore's. But I will tell you this: no man has ever been more loyal to the Order than Aberforth. Nothing will escape the lips of Aberforth if Dumbledore says it is confidential to the Order. Ron and Harry, you will be staying in the second basement, while Ginny, you will be staying in the first basement, all alone unless Hermione joins us. So, you can go check out your rooms."

"Are we not going to talk about the forty foot dragon outside, then?" asked Ron.

"Bloody hell, I forgot," said Charlie, rebuking himself.

"You i _forgot /i _ about the forty-foot dragon you were just riding in the sky?" exploded Ron. "Are you kidding me?"

"Ron, did you forget to take your Stop-being-a-prat Potion today?" asked Ginny scathingly.

"I seem to recall a certain someone cowering next to me a couple of minutes ago," snarled Ron. Ginny stared at Ron most evilly, but Ron took that as a sign of victory and turned to Charlie. "Just what exactly will we be doing here for the next nobody seems to know how many days?"

Charlie seemed to understand why Ron was so stressed because he just took the berating as if Ron was asking him with utmost politeness and civility. "When you finish putting your things away, I will take you back to the dragon and explain your tasks." Harry had a very unpleasant flashback upon hearing the words dragon and task in the same sentence.

"Um," began Ron delicately, "are you sure we have to go back to the dragon _right_ after unpacking?"

"After unpacking?" said Harry, feeling the recklessness come upon him once again. "No no no, Ron. Now! i _Relashio /i !_" The belongings of Harry, Ron and Ginny flew to the door where Aberforth had exited and flew to the rooms of their owners, unseen by the four on the first level of the house. "Let's go!"

"Grand," gulped Ron.

"Right, come on, Ron," said Ginny determinedly. Charlie opened the front door and began the march back out to the field. hr The four young Dragon Trainers were silhouetted against the sun as a lone onlooker watched them from the old forest. A confident young adult seemed to be leading three teenagers to the field that held that mythical beast, the tallest struggling to get free from the grip of another boy. A nasty smirk crossed his lips fleetingly, before his face returned to the dark depths of his hood.


End file.
